Busy Philipps is a spokesperson for Olay. She appeared along with several notable women in Olay’s Super Bowl ad that was lighthearted but inspiring. Busy’s current campaign, along with talk show host Lilly Singh and model Denise Bidot, is for Olay Skin Promise, which is Olay’s commitment to “zero skin retouching.” That means, any time you see a photo or commercial with the Olay Skin Promise mark, that image has not been filtered, airbrushed or altered in any way. The move is an attempt to promote body positivity by producing more realistic imagery. Busy spoke with Lara Spencer on Good Morning America about the campaign and why it was important to her, which is mainly so her girls can grow up seeing what women actually look like. You can watch Busy’s full segment here.
You’re a mom to two girls. So this is a great message for them
My older daughter loves it, and totally gets it. My little one has no idea, she doesn’t understand. But she will and it’s wonderful that she’s going to grow up in a world where people are taking these stands, brands like Olay and CVS is doing their Beauty Unaltered, so they’re also committing to not having airbrushed images. Like, what is that? We can’t all look like an airbrushed, face-tuned thing and I’m just really proud to work with Olay on its campaign with Lilly Singh and Denise.
I’m sure this was clear but just in case – the promise is not to retouch images; this is not a part of the #makeupfree movement. However, Busy said in her GMA segment that she was only wearing Regenerist and no foundation on the show. When her first Olay ads came out, Busy couldn’t believe they were unaltered, she was so happy how she looked in them and I agree, she looks amazing. (I also covet the boots she wore to the GMA interview. Photo below)
Busy mentioned the CVS Beauty Unaltered campaign that is making the same promise. Aerie also has a similar campaign. I could not get more behind these efforts. I’d love my children to grow up looking at photos of what people really look like, but I won’t lie, I would benefit greatly from not comparing myself to a model’s altered image as well. Like Busy said, we can’t all look like those airbrushed people we admire in the magazines. Hell, the people in those ads can’t look like that either. So wouldn’t it be great to see obtainable beauty. And I know it’s easy to write these celebrities off because they tend to be beautiful in their own right. But they still have to have the guts to stand the criticism hurled at them for daring to show themselves as natural as possible, which is exactly what happened after Busy’s first Olay commercial. She said that some troll wrote it was “ironic I have an Olay commercial cause my skin is terrible.” So I really do applaud these models willing to take the slings and arrows in order to push this movement forward. Hopefully that world that Busy spoke of that promotes natural images can become a reality.
Photo credit: Instagram and WENN/Avalon
I love Olay! I’ve been getting lots of compliments on my skin lately and I’ve been using the Olay + Covergirl simply ageless. I‘m 27 so maybe it’s unnecessary to get something age-oriented but it’s really smooth and evens out my skin! Highly recommend. I wish there was a greater range of shades, though.
I love Busy, but I am not sure she qualifies for the “we cant all look airbrushed” campaign, as she had a great skin and was attractive all the time.
l wonder if Olay would hire a person who looks awful with awful skin and do the “before and after” pictures, to prove that Olay helped
you dont have to be airbrushed so much, if you are attractive 🙂
but, tbh everyone likes to see their pictures in the most flattering way, so a good photographer was the way to go before filters and photoshop and airbrushing
on the other hand, I dont want to see Goop without makeup and filter, like honestly
PS. it rings the same tune like hire 14 year old models to prove some anti-aging cream worked
I think Busy is awesome, but let’s be honest … most people who look that good past the age of 35 or so are achieving it through visits to medspas. I’m totally fine with that–I do medspa stuff myself (just made an appointment today!)–but let’s not pretend Olay is her actual secret to looking so fresh without airbrushing.
Good for them. I’ tired of photoshopping women until they don’t even look real anymore. Because you know what the next step is, all women in adds will be CGI because why waste time paying a real woman when a digital one can meet the “ideal” standard more easily? When advertisement, or celebrities, photoshop their images it does a disservice to women everywhere.
My 5 year old daughter has started seeing makeup videos on YouTube Kids and now she wants heels and makeup. Don’t people realize that telling little girls that women wear makeup is telling them that women don’t look acceptable naturally?
While I applaud the no-filter/make-up free/no retouching movement, I can see it possibly being just as bad. Pretty much everyone knows ads and instas are filtered and airbrushed beyond recognition, and we can get solace from that (of course she looks perfect, she’s ‘shopped). Now we are bombarded with un-retouched photos of women looking perfect without help (presumably), and it’s not making me feel better about my splotchy, saggy, aging looks. And let’s face it, most celebs don’t post “I woke up like this” photos to show the world that they have flaws too. They post them to show us how fabulous they look “au naturale”.